Saturday, January 16, 2010

Danny Ayalon: Returning National Honor

Danny Ayalon made it clear over Shabbat that his "apology" to Turkey was merely a formality forced on him.

In an interview Ayalon said:

"We will not allow a situation where every country will kick us. If there will be an attack on Israel, we will leave all options open, including the expulsion of ambassadors.We do not want to argue with anyone, but we will not sit idly by."

Again, kudos to Ayalon and Lieberman for standing up for our national honor (and the really bad acting in the Turkish TV show).

And in fact, there was another (unintended?) positive side effect, Ehud Barak got politically discomforted by it too, as he is now being snubbed in Turkey.

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10 comments:

yoni r.
said...

While I applaud Ayalon's sentiments, it doesn't make up for the fact that he acted like a child. You don't have to ignore long-standing protocol and plain good manners, while at the same time embarassing a guest (I find it hard to believe that the Turkish embassador to Israel had much to do with the offensive TV show) in order to defend your honor.

Yoni: Ayalon said he didn't know the "special preparations" were going to be filmed (and broadcast).

"Long standing protocol and good manners" is simply irrelevant when dealing with such blatant anti-antisemitism. Here's a sampling of Turkey's finest over the past few weeks:

There are people around the clock besieging the Israeli consulate in Istanbul shouting their hatred against Israel and Jewish people. All around Istanbul billboards are full of propaganda posters against Israel like; “Moses, even this is not written in your book” and “Israel Stop this Crime.” On the streets the people are writing such graffiti as: “Kill Jews,” “Kill Israel,” “Israel should no longer exist in the Middle East,” and “Stop Israeli Massacre.”

The week-end before, some people wrote, “We will kill you” on the door of one of the biggest synagogues in Izmir resulted in the closing down of synagogues. Near Istanbul University, a group put a huge poster on the door of a shop owned by a Jew: “Do not buy from here, since this shop is owned by a Jew.” A group put posters on his wall saying that: “Jews and Armenians are not allowed but dogs are allowed.” Some young people are even threatening others with violence if they are seen as pro-Israel in social networking websites such as Facebook and Hi5.

The document attached is the official statement by the minister of education stating that tomorrow [January 14] at 11am in all the high schools and primary schools the students will pay homage to the women and children dead during the war and furthermore, the teachers of art will organize the session of painting and writing on the subject: “Humanity Drama in Palestine” and the winners will receive awards.

I'm not going to argue about what is or isn't relavant. Suffice it to say that I don't agree with your argument (which, if I understand it correctly, pretty much boils down to, "well, they're misbehaving, so why shouldn't we").

However, in view of you comments, I find it hard to be proud of a foreign ministry which calls in an embassador in order to protest a TV show, while at the same time ignoring the just as (or more) serious examples of "Turkey's finest."

Yoni: Its far more than just a TV show. Over the past 6 months, Turkey has been waging a huge anti-Semitic and anti-Israel campaign against us.

The "huge" deal here, is that the ambassador sat on a chair which was lower that Ayalon's. Is that really such a huge deal? That small action (which no one would have noticed, except the pre-interview setup was broadcast as a "scoop") "insulted" Turkey to become a national issue of mammoth proportions.

How can you even compare a campaign of virulent anti-semitism to a chair's height during an interview being a few inches lower that Ayalon's?

The antisemitic show is on Turkish State Sponsored TV. It's not a private TV station. The Turkish government pays for it and decides what gets shown. The show is official Turkish sponsored incitement against Israel.

All I'm saying is that it was a childish way of acting. Yes, Turkey's conduct toward us has been less than stellar lately. I never denied that. (Take a minute to check.) But there are ways to deal with things, and ways not to deal with things. Probably the best proof that this was the wrong way to act is that Ayalon's actions have become the story.

Your last comment was incongrous with the post. On the one hand, you applaud Ayalon for the way he acted. On the other hand, in your comment, you dismiss it as no big deal. Stop waffling.

Here's a non waffle. ANYTHING that can be done to show that we're not going to take this #$%^ any longer is welcome in my book. I really don't care if it was outside protocol, as this just gets us nowhere and beholden to the nations anyways. Say what is what and move on. If they don't like it they can take their ball and go home.

You're missing the point. Ayalon's message was fine. The delivery was childish. Really childish. (And it's not like Israel was in a situation where they had no other way to respond.) By itself that's pretty bad. What's worse is that the delivery became a distraction from the real issue.